QAGOMA 2023 season revealed: Michael Zavros to headline
He hosted a show featuring full frontal nudity at Brisbane Festival, now Michael Zavros is set to be the star of QAGOMA’s 2023 season, writes Phil Brown.
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He recently hosted a hedonistic Greek themed party with nude models at Brisbane Festival and now artist Michael Zavros is set to headline season 2023 at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art.
With the program being announced Friday we can tell you that the most exciting thing in store is a major show featuring the Brisbane artist which will run concurrently with a major retrospective, eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness.
Zavros is one of Australia’s hottest artists and his extraordinarily meticulous works are snapped up by collectors. He’s known for his explorations of the world of luxury but also for his searingly honest reflections on being a dad and, well, a mortal.
His painting Bad Dad, featuring him hogging a kid’s floatie in a pool will be among the works displayed next year along with his own take on the myth of Narcissus which features Zavros admiring his own reflection in the shiny hood of a flash Mercedes.
Zavros, who obviously has a keen sense of humour, is no inner-city latte sipper - he’s a family man who lives on acreage on the city’s fringe with his wife, respected writer and curator Alison Kubler, and their three children, horses and other animals.
He’s a skilled equestrian, looks like a male model and often does the unexpected - like hosting a Greek mythology themed party entitled Dionysus Redux on a city rooftop bar during Brisbane Festival.
The party featured nude models strategically posing by the Greek buffet and opera and bouzouki performances and a fortune teller who was kept busy by Brisbane’s smart set.
Zavros is currently showing at his Brisbane dealer, Philip Bacon Galleries, in Fortitude Valley for anyone who wants to see what he has been up to in his studio lately.
He’s a master artist, has won awards and is hung in all the major galleries.
His beautiful portrait of former governor-general of Australia, Dame Quentin Bryce, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
QAGOMA director Chris Saines says that “after this summer’s immersive exhibition Air takes audiences on a journey through the invisible and vital life-giving element we are looking forward to presenting exhibitions by Michael Zavros and eX de Medici concurrently at GOMA from June 24 until October 2 in 2023”.
“A single ticket will cover the two exhibitions - Michael Zavros: The Favourite featuring more than 90 works of painting, sculpture, video, photography and performance and the retrospective eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness, the most extensive exhibition to date of the Canberra-based artist‘s practice,” he says.
“Zavros’s celebration of beauty and exacting realism will be brought into sharp focus through his depictions of sumptuously detailed European architecture and interiors, luxury fashion and cars, elaborate still life arrangements and portraiture. Among the many highlights will be paintings from the early 2000s such as Man in wool suitand Grey pant, exploring ideas of masculinity, craftsmanship and identity, and portraits of the artist and his family, including his V12/Narcissus.”
The survey of de Medici’s forty-year career will explore the fragility of life, global affairs, and the universal themes of power, conflict and death. Comprising over 100 artworks, the exhibition will feature the artist’s intricate botanical studies and her dazzling large-scale watercolours and her compelling portrait of Australian rock band Midnight Oil.
The program would also feature collection focused exhibitions highlighting QAGOMA’s Indigenous Australian art holdings, cinema programs, art workshops for children and other arty treats.
The culmination of the 2023 program will be Fairy Tales, a blockbuster summer exhibition at GOMA from December 2 2023 which will delve into the ageless allure of iconic stories that have held a near universal fascination for centuries and continue to permeate art and contemporary culture.
Occupying the entire ground floor of GOMA, the exhibition will encompass painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, film, costume and design by leading international and Australian artists including Yayoi Kusama, Jana Sterbak, Kiki Smith, Patricia Piccinini, Abdul Abdullah, Ron Mueck and Charles Blackman.
Highlights include a spectacular commission by Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira that will transform the architecture of the gallery into a gnarled and twisted woodland.
Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said QAGOMA exhibitions were significant contributors to Brisbane’s visitor economy.
“We know blockbuster QAGOMA exhibitions are also epic events for the city’s accommodation, hospitality and transport providers, and tourism operators,” Minister Hinchliffe said.
“These world-class, immersive experiences at QAGOMA are an important part of the great Queensland lifestyle that encourages Brisbane visitors to stay longer.”
qagoma.qld.gov.au
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